LAHORE – Former Pakistan cricket team captain Shoaib Malik said Thursday that he was experiencing the most difficult painful time of his career. Malik, 28, has not been selected for the forthcoming Pakistan 15-member World Cup team to be played from next month in subcontinent.
Malik was quoted as saying by German Radio Deutsche Welle Urdu service that playing the World Cup was topmost desire of any athlete and it becomes more disappointing when one is ignored in the best form of your life. “I have never been in form like this before in my 11 years of international career,” he maintained. Malik was the second top scorer with 799 runs in only six matches of Quaid-e-Azam Trophy.
“Cricket is my passion. I thought I could have won this World Cup for Pakistan and that’s why it’s very difficult to make myself understand but then this is not the end of the world and cricket too. I will not leave playing cricket and try to cash in other opportunities that come my way by playing domestic cricket and events outside the country,” he added. According to Malik during this most difficult phase his wife Indian tennis star Sania Mirza was very supportive to him. Sania being herself as a sportswomen knows how to face this kind of situation as she had been through some ups and down as well. I am very lucky to have her as my wife who is sporting and helping me at every step to handle all this.
Malik also denied reports which indicated that an amount of 90,000 pounds which were transferred from India to his British account was the main reason behind PCB’s decision to sideline him from the World Cup squad. “I have not hidden anything from the PCB integrity committee.
Unlike in Pakistan you can’t approach anybody’s bank account abroad but I gave every detail of my Pakistani and foreign assets and bank accounts but yet I am not selected. I won’t start firing at anyone because it’s not my nature and I always try to remain away from controversies,” he added. Malik is considered as an ODI and T20 specialist because his Test match record has never been impressive. In 32 Test Matches Shoiab has scored only 1606 runs at an average of 33 and got only 21 wickets while in 192 ODI he has made over 5188 runs and got 134 wickets as well.
